Sw Washington Field Work 2016

[MIB]

Scapula.   From the size, I'd say deer.

 

(Google Images will give you some pictures for comparison.)

 

MIB

[SWWASAS]

I thought it might be a scapula and you are right in that it looks the same on Google.    Is is the size consistent with deer or elk?    I am suspicious when deer parts show up after that carcass was put by my truck door.  At least it was something a small scavenger could carry to get through my fense.   I live so close to my encounter locations  (about 8 miles as the crow flies)  and on the same river through the area,   I would just as soon not get visited by anything lurking about in the dark and join the ranks of the habbers.  

[MIB]

Given the size, deer, not elk. 

 

Yeah, thoughts of that "gifted" carcass crossed my mind, too. 

 

If your yard wasn't fenced, I'd say a neighbor's dog could have dragged it there ... road kill, maybe.   My father gives his deer bones to his neighbors for their dogs to chew so it could be something like that, too.   That bone has been out a while, been chewed by rodents, and has had time to grow moss.   Could have been there quite a while and just been stirred up by something like a racoon recently.

 

MIB

Edited June 5, 2016 by MIB

[SWWASAS]

Never had a dog or coyote in the yard other than my own dog.     Had a bobcat right in the middle of the day one time but it went under the fence one place to get out.          And one night saw a cougar.     I think they could jump the fence or use a tree somehow.  .   Deer get in there often enough.    A deer in the yard yesterday morning.

 

  Right now I am babysitting a nest of robins that decided in spite of my trying to discourage them from building a nest in the rafters of my deck cover.   I tore the nest out three times.    But I relented when she built it again.   She was determined and I was afraid she would lay the eggs without a suitable nest.        They hatched about a week and a half ago.   Three babies.    Worried yesterday that the heat would get them so rigged up a fan and a water mister to cool under the patio.  It was in the high 90s yesterday and supposed to be the same today.     They got through the day and are active today.    Mom bird is wearing herself out feeding them.   The largest, probably a male from his coloring, is nearly as big as she is.      The Dad was around some and has fed them some but not very consistently.   One day a stellar jay tried to get the babies and both the Mom and Dad chased it off.   I suspect the male baby will try to fly in a day or two.   Hope it does not splatter on my concrete deck floor.    Good thing I don't have a cat.        

[Guest sacripper]

^^^ stop by a toy store and get some rubber snakes. Robins and likely other birds will not build a nest where there are snakes. Try to get snakes that are similar to local species in color. I have used this method for several years on the window ledge above our front door where a Robin couple used to nest. Every once in a while a strong wind will blow one down, scaring the first person to find it :/

Regards!

[SWWASAS]

Might try that snake thing the next time.    The disruption to our normal activities has been profound.   Had to move my BBQ to the front porch to void smoking out the baby birds.    One left the nest this morning.   Two left in the nest.      I guess they cannot fly for a couple of weeks after they leave the nest.   I took the garbage out and scared the fledgling that was hiding in the bushes.   It just hopped away because it cannot fly.   Hopefully Mom and Dad bird will feed it till it can fend for itself.  

[BigTreeWalker]

I wasn't around yesterday when you posted about the scapula. Spent the day down at the beach where it was a lot cooler.

MIB was right and it's been around for a while. A raven or a crow could have also carried it out of the woods. From its size it could be calf elk too. Unless you can find the skull with teeth in it, it can be hard to tell. Bones are more apt to look like that around here than get sun bleached. Very good way in the PNW to get an estimate about how long they've been laying around by how much moss and algae is growing on them.

[SWWASAS]

BTW and I did an aerial search today.    The weather was good and there were light winds at 6000 so was one of the better days as far as turbulence.    We could see Mt Rainier,   Mt St Helens, Mount Adams,  Mt Hood,  Mt Jefferson,  and the Three Sisters pretty much all at the same time for a good portion of the flight.   Purpose of the flight was to look at some of the back country areas he wanted to see and get the perspective that seeing them from the air gives you.     We saw a lot of very rugged and remote areas with little ground access.    In general the area is between Mt St Helens and Mount Adams.    After we checked out the areas he wanted to look at, we flew over the Skookum Meadows area,  my old research area, and Silverstar Mountain.    I was trying to show him the "Indian Pits" on Silver Star  but could not find them from the air for some reason today.    Probably sun angle or something.    Saw lots of hikers on the Silver Star Trail.    He took a lot of pictures so not sure what he will want to share with the forum.     Both of us spent a lot of time looking but did not see anything moving other than the hikers.       He has enough photos of the ground now that it will take him some time to blow them up and look for something he might have missed.     Was a way better way to do it having him take the pictures and me able to put more attention into my mountain flying.   Taking pictures and flying at the same time is very task saturated and probably not a good idea.  

Edited June 12, 2016 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT

[BigTreeWalker]

Randy, I deeply appreciate the invite. We were over the field today rather than in the field. Definitely saw some rugged wild country. I had a great time. I'll be the picture taker anytime you need one.

When I get the chance to review what I have, I'll post some here.

[BC witness]

Great teamwork, guys. My lady chum who had a nice slow Cessna 120, upgraded to a fast, low wing Globe Swift a few years ago, so my own opportunities for aerial searching  pretty much evaporated. Kinda hard to look for critters at treetop level and 200 knots. :-0

 

I think a nice slow, stable 2 place ultralight would be a great platform for our type of aerial recon. Maybe even an autogyro, that could land and take off from a decent logging road. Well, I can dream, anyway.

Edited June 13, 2016 by BC witness

[norseman]

gyro copters are cool!

[SWWASAS]

I was looking at kit helicopters on line yesterday.    For 40K you can get one that will hover at 9500.    Learning to fly one is like being able to balance a beach ball on your nose while riding a unicycle.    We noticed a helipad out out East of Mt St Helens yesterday on a ridge line.      I told BTW that is probably where they took the BF bodies for burial after the 1980 eruption.

[daveedoe]

would love to see some of the pictures, sounds like you guys had a good day. 

[BigTreeWalker]

Here's some of the pictures. I got a little window reflection on some of them. The first one is looking east along Swift Reservoir.

Good area to look for tracks along the sandbars.

Spencer Meadow.

Wright Meadow. Where there has been a few sightings.

Crossing the Dark Divide and a wild isolated valley.

East side of Mt St Helens.

The old helipad. You can sort of make out the H in a triangle. I've stood on that pad. But the road going in there is washed out.

A couple of ponds near Elk Pass where my son and I had our 1st wood knocking experience.

Flying over our elk camp area. The horizontal strip of old growth near the top left is where my hunting partner and I had my second wood knocking experience.

Skookum Meadows. Northwest of Indian Heaven Wilderness.

Hikers on Silver Star mountain.

Looking SE from Silver Star.

That's just a few of the pictures I took. We flew over a lot of wild country. It's amazing how much time I've spent up in that country and how little of it I have actually covered. We could see 6 of the Cascade volcanoes from up there. I also took about 18 minutes of video between Silver Star and landing back at the airfield. Randy, that was a great chance to investigate some wild country. Thanks again!

[SWWASAS]

Nice pictures.    Thanks for posting them BTW.   The last picture shows how many of the ridge lines are connected.    On the very left,  is Pyramid Rock, a ridge trail running East West connects that to Silverstar whose ridge runs North South which is just to the left of the aircraft strut then leading off to the East is another ridge line with trail to Mt Baldy just right of the strut.    While the Silverstar trail is very popular,  and well traveled, the other high ridges are connected by much less traveled trails.      Humans use these trails but they are snow covered half of the year, and as much as I have flown in the area, you just do not see enough humans on those trails to explain how well used they appear to be.    I wonder if BF use them to travel the high country at night and avoid the debris chocked drainage of the watersheds in the valleys below.    At night with star or moon light and the light colored trails, it would be an easy passage and there would be no human presence.